Trump seemingly attended a meeting at which Papadopoulos was present

If this photo isn’t fake, Trump was once in a meeting with Papadopoulos, a man Trump says he never met. Is there an explanation or are we seeing a real lie?

One of the things that Donald Trump has consistently said is that he never even met George Papadopoulos. No wonder then, that Leftists are celebrating this photograph, which sees Papadopoulos four seats away from Trump’s right hand:

As a lawyer, I can readily come up with a perfectly good explanation for this photo: Trump entered a meeting room, at which the other attendees were seated, he was told the names of the other people, many of whom he’d never met before, and the meeting commenced. Under those circumstances, he would not have “met” Papadopoulos in terms of making a specific contact with him. Moreover, he’d be highly unlikely to remember even being in the same room as Papadopoulos. I might also argue, if I had evidence to do so, that the photo is faked. (I have no evidence that the photo is faked; I’m just saying that I’d look for such evidence if I could.)

Having said that, and it can be a tough sell even if it’s the absolute truth, the photo nevertheless makes it look as if Trump and Nunes told a bald-faced lie, when they said Trump did not know Papadopoulos. Indeed, it hints at a truth holding that Trump had an actual relationship with Papadopoulos. In either event, it’s photos like this that make Trump’s supporters say that he should never allow himself to submit to an FBI interview, especially without a very good lawyer present.

Your take on this, please? And have you seen any statements from the White House or the GOP that would explain the photo? Does it go my way, which is that Trump never actually spoke to Papadopoulos and therefore has no memory of his presence at a well-attended meeting, or is it that we’re looking into the abyss of a lie that indicates other lies ranged up behind it?